a manly iPod docking station

If you want an iPhone/iPod dock that looks cool, for men, here’s what you need.

Each model is built out of a solid block of aluminum, and they’re based on the exhaust manifold of a car engine.  It’s called iXoost, which comes from the English pronunciation of the word “exhaust”.  They feature several speakers, including a 140W subwoofer.

I haven’t heard one of these, but I would like to — unless I have to pay for it.  The starting price is $6200.  I think it looks awesome, but I suspect the WAF (Wife Approval Factor) would be considerably less than favorable.

You can find more info at the iXoost website, and you can even customize your own on this page.

Man Candles

There are now candles with scents aimed at men, who might not be interested in collections like “Water Inspirations” or “Citrus Passions”.

YANKEE CANDLE COMPANY, INC

Man Town™ – Escape to the man cave with this masculine blend of spices, woods and musk.

First Down™ – This combination of orange, patchouli, vetiver and leather is as exciting as game day.

Riding Mower™ – Hot sun. Cool breeze. And the intensely summery scent of freshly cut grass.

2 x 4™ – The warm, unmistakable scent of freshly planed wood and sawdust evokes a sense of confidence and quality.

Apparently this is for real, even though it sounds like a parody.  They cost $27.99 each.  I’m no marketing expert, but men typically don’t buy candles to start with, and that seems like a high price to gain entry into this market (if such a niche exists).

I don’t have any review samples, but let’s consider the candles anyway, just based on the descriptions.  I’m not sure I’d want one that smells like a man cave.  Let’s think about this logically.  If a man is single, his bachelor pad may already smell like a “man cave”.  And if he’s single, he likely isn’t buying candles.  If a man is married, he probably already has several years’ supply of candles at his house, and his wife likely would not approve of these smells anyway.

There is a nice aroma of a freshly-mowed yard, but I’m not sure I’d want that in the house.  Plus, you get that every week or so anyway from mowing the yard.

Some guys might like the 2×4 scent, but I doubt it evokes “a sense of confidence”.  I don’t know about the First Down scent, either, but I’m fairly certain a candle won’t be “as exciting as game day”.  That’s some marketing malarkey!  But this is no review, because I haven’t tried them.  Nor do I plan to, because I’m married and I never buy candles anyway.  But if you have experience with these, let us know.

a cat helicopter

There’s a lot of strange stuff out there in the world and on teh internets.  That’s no surprise to you.  But this is one of the weirdest stories I’ve ever come across.

A Dutch artist named Bart Jansen had a cat named Orville (which is ironic, as you will see) who died after being hit by a car.  So he mourned for a while, then converted his dead cat into a helicopter.  This isn’t just art — it actually flies.  He calls it the Orvillecopter, and describes it as “half-cat, half-machine”.  (You could also call it the cat-mobile.)  It is literally a taxidermied cat with a propeller attached to each paw and an engine in his stomach, and it is controlled via a remote control.

The artist’s statement says he focuses on the meeting-point between technological progress and human error.  I suppose it’s better to wax philosophical about turning your dead cat into a helicopter rather than doing it just because you can.  Although I wonder if he came up with that saying before or after this art project.  Whatever…

The artist says about his cat “he received his wings posthumously” and “now he is flying with the birds — the greatest goal a cat could ever reach!”  (I’m sure there are more puns to be had at this, but that’s enough for this post.)

Of course this “art” has sparked outrage among some animal rights groups.  The owner clearly says no animals were harmed for this project, which technically is true.  Nonetheless, some people will get offended at anything.  At an art fair showcasing Orvillecopter, some anonymous animal rights activists wrote graffiti saying “Kill the animal killers”.  Apparently they don’t know the story.  That’s like those people (sometimes called trolls) who leave hateful comments without even reading the article.  Another activist said the artist should be thrown in a vat of manure when he dies.  So is the message that you should do something mean to someone if you disagree with them on ethical issues?  Isn’t that highly ironic (and hypocritical)?

Personally, I wouldn’t do this to a family pet.  But if he’s going to do it, he might as well go all out.  He should make the blades as transparent as possible and have the stand fold up underneath.  Then it would look like just a flying cat.  He could also consider mounting water pistols on it, to shoot people or animals while dive-bombing them.

If you want to see the Orvillecopter in action, flying around and terrorizing cows, here’s a video (which even features the theme song from Airwolf*):

* Some of you may not know about Airwolf.  It was a TV show in the ’80s that featured a secret high-tech military helicopter tricked-out for fighting criminals, who usually flew helicopters, too.  I don’t know if the show has aged well (I’ve never seen reruns of it), but as a kid, I thought it was cool.  There was cool music and sound effects, and there was usually real explosions.  There’s not enough TV sitcoms these days that feature explosions…  But I digress…  Here’s a brief introduction to Airwolf.

You’ll trade me what for a pair of shoes?!?

I came across this supposedly real news article, but I don’t have a link to prove its validity.  Nonetheless, given the other weird news I’ve come across, I can believe it.

Police were hoping for a good turnout at their “Kicks for Guns” sneaker exchange Friday, but they weren’t expecting to get a surface-to-air missile launcher. An Ocoee man showed up and exchanged the 4-foot-long launcher for size-3 Reebok sneakers for his daughter. Taking advantage of the exchange’s no-questions-asked policy, the man was not identified. He told the Orlando Sentinel that he found the weapon in a shed he tore down last week.

You know the economy is bad when people are trading in the family rocket launcher for a pair of tennis shoes. I blame Obama.

I wish I had more info.  I mean, how do you tear down a shed and happen to find a missile launcher?  That just doesn’t happen.  There has to be more to the story…